The Road Ahead Is Long
by FinalFantasyHearts-Rinsaito
Summary: Artemis Fowl the second is seventeen-years-old, he lives alone in Paris, and the last thing he remembers before his mind turns to blackness is one Holly Short. Artemis has given up on everything he once cared for. Saving two different worlds.
1. Chapter 1

The Road Ahead Is Long

**Title:** The Road Ahead Is Long

**Rating: **T

**Category: **Books Artemis Fowl

**Subjects:** Adventure/ Crime/ Tragedy/ Hurt/ comfort/ Friendship. .

**Summary:** [Artemis Fowl the second is seventeen-years-old, he lives alone in Paris, and the last thing he remembers before his mind turns to blackness is one Holly Short. Artemis has given up on everything he once cared for. Stuck in a depression, the strangest things can pull you out again, and help you to believe in what you thought was too far gone to ever reach again.]

**Inspiration:** I suddenly had an idea for a name after reading a fic by someone else, and round that name the story popped into my head.

**Author Note:** If it proves popular I'll continue it...eventually.** :) **

One: Don't Be Sinful 

_Lay down your senseless pride - You travelled once too often. I tell you right now. All I want you to know; I love you. All I need is the time to show you how I feel._

It wasn't the rain spattering the pavements which annoyed him that morning that started the perpetual motion of the events to follow, but, it was one of the important things. He didn't hate the rain, he lived in Paris for God sake – there was plenty of it. It was something more that made him irritated as he listened to the small tip-toed rain drops, something he couldn't quite place. Staring down into the square courtyard, he watched as people crunched their way over the yellowed grit which covered the paths. Turning the perfect white snow of the day before to an ugly dirty slush which sloshed and made unpleasant noises beneath the souls of your best shoes, managing to saturate them and get into your socks.

His attention was suddenly drawn away by an exclamation of indignation from the from of the room. His mismatched gaze lifted to meet that of a young woman, she was frowning at him angrily.

"Artemis, would you stop gazing out of ze window as if you'd prefer not to be 'ere? I find it most irritating."

Artemis flushed, "Forgive me, Madam Fayne."

"I 'ave no time for your apologies, simply listen to my lesson, or leave. The choice is entirely your own." she instructed him, and the teenager groaned. Madame Fayne had to be the only teacher whom he didn't try to annoy on purpose, but she still hated him. Because he was always distracted in her lessons, and it wasn't as if he even wanted to be. It was simply something about the room, and Madam Fayne herself which baffled him.

Whenever Artemis walked into his Ancient languages class he felt sleepy and his mind wander, his mind unable to remember anything but the past. Something which he wished he didn't think about. It was almost like...but, that was impossible -of course. Logic told Artemis that his crazy idea, while sounding perfectly sane within the confines of his head, and while in Ancient Languages, did not once he took even a single step out of the room. Nor, did they sound so well formed when he played back his mental monologue. This made everything that much more suspicious to him, but, his ability to be so left him inside Madame Fayne's class all together.

**

Half and hour later, Artemis left his class and the fog in his mind lifted once more. He was peeved by this, but decided that it was just an anomaly of life. He'd seen enough to know that. Far too many.

"Artemis!" Screamed an Americanised voice, to which he turned in time to pounced upon. Luck for him, it was only Juliet. Juliet Butler, the younger sister of his bodyguard and life-long friend. "Good lesson?"

He shrugged noncommittally, he didn't know himself whether or not the lesson had been a good one. If Holly...no, because he'd never see her again. He couldn't, not after everything that had happened, and he knew this was the one thing she'd probably be able to help him with. But, you couldn't forgive something like that. How could you? It was...beyond the imagination, and he'd believed.

_I thought she was my friend, _he chided himself for the millionth time in the past two years. He couldn't give up now though...or could he? He already had as it was, but, one thing he didn't know himself weak enough to do was to ask Holly to do that for him. Because...it would be poetically just even. All that time and really, all the Lower Elements Police had wanted was that, and they'd gotten it. Four years, a life destroyed and several friendships down the pan later. There wasn't any going back to how things once were. There were reasons they never mentioned it at Artemis' house. You didn't bring up the Master and Mistress...or young Master Beckett. It was still a raw wound for them all, and one that didn't look likely to heal any time soon.

The one thing Artemis was always thankful for, was that Myles didn't remember it clearly. Barely even Beckett. He had to be reminded of his twin often...just a picture, they didn't talk about him. But, Myles was old enough to be able to read anyway.

_Murder, how do you forget something like that and live? _Artemis asked himself silently.

*_____*

" Damn Pixies!" Foaly the Centaur yelled angrily, flapping his hands around his face in an effort to swat the Pixie flies away.

"It's only because you can't be bothered to clean that damn thing once in a while." Holly replied sharply, watching him carefully, almost warily. He frowned, then peered down at the thick red pulsing symbol.

"It's hard to clean something like that." he replied irritatedly as he gingerly poked the raw skin and winced.

"Two years, Foaly. You've had that mark for two years!" Holly Short replied, gritting her teeth in annoyance. He shrugged, the pattern ingrained into his memory even without looking at it. Something to intricate, weaving it's way down the whole of his left leg, cutting the colour of his coat with great gashes of blood coloured flesh. "It doesn't look like it's going to go away!"

"I've had this for the same amount of time you've had that scar, Holly. There's nothing to be done about it."

Holly's fingers moved automatically to the thin white scar under her right eye and shuddered slightly. "You can barely use the leg now." she had observed this over time. How, less and less Foaly would move from his chair. Only when she was out of the room, and the times when she had caught him out of his seat, he'd been limping badly. It was getting worse with every passing day, where he was almost dragging his immobile limb the pain was so great. She could see it in his eyes, it plagued him, and it only worsened with time.

"Is it really two years, Foaly?" Holly asked him sadly, sitting down heavily on one of the chairs and running her fingers through her dark red hair. He nodded solemnly to her, his eyes drifting to the calendar on the wall above her head.

He counted the days carefully and sighed, "In three days. Yes, Holly."

"But, so much has changed. It...feels like so long, but so little at the same time." she shook her head. "How did we end up like this?"

"We played the wrong game, and we were called on our bluff."

"Meaning?" She muttered angrily.

"That we joined a dangerous cause, one which we believed in. One which we added to because we thought we'd been betrayed, or would be. What we did was to jump before we were shot. Except, that was never the case, we jumped to conclusions instead and we now have to pay that price. For the rest of our lives." He remembered in such vivid detail, the night it all happened. Two whole years ago.

"You know, I don't think anyone has smiled since that day. Not one person involved, at least."

"Haven's crumbling around us, and there's nothing we can do about it, Holly. It has been for the past two years, and we just have to wait for the end to come."

"Why are we waiting? Why aren't we fighting for what we believe in anymore?" Holly questioned desperately.

"Could you really - After pulling that trigger? Have you smiled since then? Do you not wake every night knowing that it will stay with you for the rest of your life? It's marked you, and all of us."

"We always knew it was dangerous though, to try something that powerful." She protested, though not disagreeing with anything he said.

"And, we knew there were risks, you're right. Yes. The fact is, it scared each and every one of us, linked into that one being...it isn't something which we can just forget. In fact, it's within all of us still, we share a piece in your guilt, that heartbreak you feel...I feel that too. We know what it is, that ache you want to heal, Holly. But, we can't do that for you."

"Then why not fight?" she queried.

"Because this is your battle, not ours. You have to do it alone." The Centaur told her wisely.

"I don't know what I'm fighting anymore." She explained, burying her face in her hands.

"It's not what."

"What do you mean?" Holy asked, looking up at him.

"Exactly as I say. It's not what. It's who. The person who can make this all go away. The one we always turn to though don't admit it."

"Artemis Fowl."

Foaly nodded, "Yes, Artemis."

She shook her head, moving back in her chair as far as possible, "I cant!"

"Why not?" The Technical consultant questioned her.

"Because it's all my fault..."

He nodded, half turning to her in his swivel chair, and meeting her gaze sternly. "Exactly."


	2. Chapter 2

Two: "Take Me Back"

Author's Note: To be honest, I wasn't sure if I was going to write more of this so soon, but, here it is. Apologises if it doesn't shed too much light on what's happened quite yet. But, it'll make sense eventually. I'm off to watch The Veiderbecke Connection. Adeiu. Also, I just realised something which amused me. The Road Ahead Is Long can be shortened to TRAIL. :) _Thank-you, to Ancient And Forever for BETAing..._

"Take me back two Years, Artemis," his counselor instructed him sweetly. She was a middle-aged women, whose appearance had not changed once in the entire time Artemis has been forced to visit her twice a week for 'counseling' during the past two Years. She always wore the same light blue cardigan, which could only be described as 'frumpy', an unflattering pencil skirt and a pair of Crocs. Artemis wondered if this same appearance was for his sake, working on some idea that if she wore the same thing each time he would find her familiar in all ways and more likely to open up to. Whereas, even if it were true, all Artemis gained from it was a better sense of fashion and an intolerable grudge against Crocs.

"Mrs. Welkins," The Irish boy sighed, this being her address, though she constantly chided him for it and asked him to call her 'Mary'.

"Mary, please, Artemis." came the predictable response. It was always the same conversation, meeting after meeting. And, it always ended in the same, predictable way.

Artemis literally dreaded Tuesdays and Saturdays for this reason. She always asked him to go back, tell her what happened. And, he never could. Sometimes he remembered further back, but everything he did remember was painful. He did not relish bringing it up time and again. He was not a masochist, by any stretch of the imagination. He was tempted to storm out, something of an idea which he had been planning for several months, but he knew part of his university agreement was that he attended the sessions and complied with their structure with as much grace as possible for him. He swallowed and the turned his gaze back to the woman.

"I'd prefer 'Mrs. Welkins', please."

She sighed, she'd been trying for two Years and she hadn't exactly expected the reply to change, just as much as he hadn't anticipated a change in question. "If that's what you want, Artemis."

"Thank-you. It is." he smiled graciously.

Adjusting her clipboard, she smiled at him over a pair of reading glasses. "Now, you know I dislike this as much as you do, Artemis. But, please...tell me about what happened two Years ago."

"Well, you see the year started with New Year's day...much like every Year in our calendar does." Artemis told her sarcastically.

She frowned at him reproachfully, it was always something different in order to delay the story.

"Artemis, please. As soon as you've told me -you can leave."

"Very well." he complied.

Two Years, Three Weeks and Five Days Before, New York City.

"Artemis, I know I always find myself saying this but -are you sure this is a good idea?" Domovoi Butler asked his charge warily as he watched his at the computer terminal.

"Nonsense, Butler. Of course this is a good idea. As all of my plans are." The teenager replied arroangantly.

"I could beg to differ on that one." Butler muttered under his breath, thinking of one of Artemis' 'grand' ideas and his subsequent - albeit short- death because of it two years previously.

"You know perfectly well that the only reason my ideas ever turn out badly is due to the input of others. Not my own fault."

"But, that's living, Artemis. If you don't anticipate other's actions you can't have planned very well..." Butler pointed out.

The Irish scion of Fowl Enterprises glared at him icly and Butler shut his mouth. Perhaps, though humbled his charge may have been by past events, he was not quite ready for his mistakes to be pointed out to him. Not yet.

"Very well, Artemis. Have it your way."

Artemis nodded, "I plan to." as he said this a loud ping sounded from the electronic keyboard beneath his fingertips and a gleeful smile spread across his face. "And it would appear, that I just have." Butler rolled his eyes as soon as Artemis wasn't looking and watched as the boy hopped down from the the work station and made his way around it to a panel within the steel wall as it slid back...

Present Day, Paris

"What was inside the safe?" Mrs. Welkins asked, excitedly. As if the conversation was merely a tale woven from Artemis' imagination, and not one of fact.

"It wasn't a safe." He corrected her, tartly.

"What was it then?"

Artemis frowned, "Well, it was a security box."

"That's a safe, Artemis." She replied, amused by this.

He pursed his lips and glared at her, "It is not the same thing. A secuirty box is quite different to a safe, Mrs. Welkins."

"In what way?"

"Well...it's far too complex to explain in such a small amount of time."

Mrs. Welkins grinned, "You know, it's perfectly all right to admit you made a mistake."

"I did not make a mistake!" He growled.

She sighed, there was obviously no point. "Very well, Artemis. I apologise. Now, please continue. What was inside the saf--- secuirty box?"

Artemis shrugged, "I don't remember."

"You don't remember? But, everything started because of that - correct?" Mrs. Welkins asked.

He nodded slowly. "Yes. But, I don't remember what it actually was..."

*__________________*

Present Day, Haven City

"D'Arvit!" yelled Holly Short as two Goblins stepped in front of her, effectively blocking her way through the side street. She turned to look over her shoulder, only to be met by two more Golbins- these wielding fireballs. She swallowed quickly as her hand moved to her Neutrino on her hip, comforted by it's presence.

"Hello, Elf." the obvious leader greeted her, with a jagged smile.

"I'm surprised," Holly told him with a grin, "I always thought it was beat then greet with Goblins. Rebelling are we?" though, she was thankful that these four had taken the trouble to swap insults before any fighting broke out.

He licked his eyeballs thoughtfully and shrugged, "Sometimes Marks are better that way."

"Oh, like, satisfiying the need for dominance - I get that." she replied conversationally, taking a few steps towards him, "Not enough love at home, mother left you, daddy beat you...taking your troubles out on poor, unsuspecting elfin citizens to get your kicks?" She circled him slowly, keeping her eyes on the other three Goblins, "Can't get recognised as you are. Silent beatings don't give you any..._satisfaction,_ right? It's not like anyone knows it's you - just another char-grilled body, no one cares. If they struggle it's better, right? If they talk." he nodded, dumbly. Holly doubted that he even understood most of what she was saying, but it sure was distracting enough to hopefully gain her an escape route while they were preocupied with listening to her.

She patted his arm in a friendly way, "It's all right, it really is. You can tell me anything. After all - what's a motive between a potential-murderer and his prey?"

"Erm..." she sighed, this was almost pointless. But, she did like to know who sent Goblins after her.

"Articulate, aren't you?"

"Huh? You insultin' me, Elf?" he bellowed.

Holly smiled as sweetly as possible at him, which was diffuclt when he reaked of rotting fish. "No, no. Of course not. Far from it. It's a compliment, really."

"Sayin' I don't have a way with words a compliment, is it?" he growled.

Holly groaned, just her luck to get a Goblin with a few more than four brain cells to rub together. She supposed that was why he was the leader.

"Yeah, sure. I can't stand the type of people who talk and talk. They say silence is a virtue...or is it golden? Those stupid mudmen sayings." She laughed nervously and hoped he didn't know the real saying.

He took a step foreward and grabbed her by the neck of her tailored green jacket. "Shut-up."

Holly nodded meekly. "Yes, sir."

The Goblins chuckled together and the leader grinned gleefully. "Know what? You may as well know what's goin' on, Elf. As you're gonna die anyway."

"W-who sent you?" she asked, "I've never done anything to anyone. Are you sure you've got the right elf?"

"Don't think you can pretend. Holly Short ain't done nothing to no one? You've done a lot'a stuff. That's why someone got a mark against ya. So, you see, you're gonna die. Just like you said before." he told her scornfully.

She looked down at the ground, her feet were dangling three feet above it and she was surrounded by four Goblins down a side street in the slums of Haven. There were very few who walked away from something like that...and the numbers had been dropped ever sice the Collapse two years previously. Everything was falling into disrepair, and as far as she could see, there wasn't really a reason for it. She would have thought the people Haven would recover from what had happened, and yet they had not. They stayed as they were -weak, unable to protect themseleves and underground. Even the LEP didn't venture above ground now unless it was absolutely vital.

"How does that make you feel - knowing this is the end for you?" he asked her, still grinning. Obviously hoping for some sort of plea for release.

Holly chuckled, causing the Goblin's expression to become utterly confused and...left him off guard.

"_Satisfied._" She told him deliberately, landing lightly on her feet moments later as his grip released and he fell away from her and hit the dirt caked sidewalk with a loud thud. She straightened up, gently pushing the folds out of her jacket then turned to the remaining three Goblins, her Nutreno in one hand – the barrel smoking ominously. "Right, who's next?"

"D'Arvit! Is he dead?" one of the three asked the other two, anxiously. Hoping that the boss was only faking, ready to top the little fairy as soon as she wasn't looking.

Former- Captain Holly Short smirked, "Oh, he's dead all right..." the three followers didn't even see her pull the trigger, until they fell one by one like their boss. "Oops...my finger slipped." she chuckled, kicking the toe of one of the Goblin's boots experimentally. She swaggered down the alleyway the way she had been going before the incident at a leisurely pace and holstered her weapon. Just as if it was perfectly normal for her.

**

"I'm back." Holly called as she walked into the technical booth an hour and a half later, dumping her bag and unholstering her weapon quickly.

"Oh, Holly. I didn't hear the slamming of doors three floors up at all, what a surprise it's you."

"Oh, Ha-Ha, Foaly." she replied irritably.

Foaly raised a hand as she opened her mouth to speak once more, "It's your job, Holly. Don't complain."

"But—"

He frowned at her, "You're lucky you have a job as it is. Don't complain. The walls have ears..."

"Seriously, Foaly, the mudmen don't care about us! No one is listening in on us." she snapped.

"No, Holly I mean it. They have the whole place bugged. You say anything that will make them see you as a risk, and you'll be out of the LEP and Haven before you can say ' Troll manure'." Foaly warned.

"I'd prefer that to doing this every day."

"Holly, much as I hate to say this. The people you're sent to kill - they pose a threat to us. To all that we are and any recovery. Now, I know you don't like it, but you have to honour that, because you played a part in what we have become." He turned away from her, and Holly sighed. She knew he would refuse to talk to her now, and she didn't blame him. He was right. The only downfall of this was that she didn't want to admit it to herself.

The door to the technical booth slammed open and the pair glanced up. Commander Trouble Kelp stood in the doorway, looking sheepish.

"Erm...those doors are much easier to move than they look." He explained hesitantly.

"And there was I, thinking you were trying a new Enter Man move." Foaly sighed.

"It's Action Man." Holly corrected. Both males shrugged, as if they actually cared?

"Anyway, this isn't a social visit -" Trouble continued.

Holly sighed, "I wish it was."

"An Audit would be nice..." Foaly added.

"No, no. Both of you. This is serious!" Commander Kelp chided them.

"It always is."

Holly nodded, "End of the world,"

"Death to all."

"The fate of all of humanity and faerykind lies on your shoulders."

Foaly shrugged, "We've heard it all before - several times."

Trouble Kelp groaned in exasperation, "I know, I know. And, I of all people wish it wasn't always you we turn to but-"

"It is." Foaly replied 'helpfully'.

Trouble frowned , but nodded. "Unfortunately, yes."

"What's wrong with us?" Holly demanded agrily, gesturing with her hand and then realising her gun was pointing at the commander. "Oh, sorry." she dropped it to the floor and sighed.

"There's nothing wrong with the two of you helping...it's just...aren't you tired of saving 'civilization as we know it'?" he asked, unhappily.

Foaly grinned, "Well, there's nothing on TV..."

"I was going to wash my hair...but, I guess it'll have to wait." Holly told him with a wink. Commander Kelp chuckled slightly, for the first time in at least a few months - given the pressures he was being put under to keep the city under some form of law enforcement. He nodded, turning to leave the room, before adding. "One thing, though. Artemis Fowl is involved again...not that he knows it yet."

Holly shuddered slightly.


End file.
